The Four Great Towers of China() are four historically renowned towers in China. The list usually includes the following: * Yellow Crane Tower (黄鹤楼),

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city a ...

, Hubei province - () *

Pavilion of Prince Teng The Pavilion of Prince Teng () is a building in the North West of the city of Nanchang, in Jiangxi province, China, on the east bank of the Gan River and is one of the Three Great Towers of southern China. The other two are the Yueyang Tower an ...

(滕王阁),

Nanchang Nanchang (, ; ) is the capital of Jiangxi Province, People's Republic of China. Located in the north-central part of the province and in the hinterland of Poyang Lake Plain, it is bounded on the west by the Jiuling Mountains, and on the east ...

Jiangxi Province Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north into h ...

- () *

Yueyang Tower Yueyang Tower () is an ancient Chinese tower in Yueyang, Hunan Province, on the shore of Lake Dongting. Alongside the Pavilion of Prince Teng and Yellow Crane Tower, it is one of the Three Great Towers of Jiangnan. Yueyang Tower became famous ...

(岳阳楼),

Yueyang Yueyang, formerly known as Yuezhou or Yochow, is a prefecture-level city on the eastern shores of Dongting Lake and Yangtze in the northeastern corner of Hunan Province in the People's Republic of China. Yueyang has an administrative area of ...

Hunan Province Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...

- () * Penglai Pagoda (蓬莱阁),

Yantai Yantai, formerly known as Chefoo, is a coastal prefecture-level city on the Shandong Peninsula in northeastern Shandong province of People's Republic of China. Lying on the southern coast of the Bohai Strait, Yantai borders Qingdao on the ...

Shandong Province Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizatio ...

- ) The first three towers are not disputable. However, Penglai Pagoda is often excluded in favour of Stork Tower (鹳雀楼), situated in

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-leve ...

. This is in order to have a list where all four towers are linked to famous pieces of literature, as follows: * Yellow Crane Tower: ''Yellow Crane Tower'' by

Cui Hao Cui Hao () (died 450 CE), courtesy name Boyuan (伯淵), was a ''shangshu'' of the Xianbei-led Northern Wei dynasty of China. Largely because of Cui's counsel, Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei was able to unify northern China, ending the Sixteen Ki ...

* Pavilion of Prince Teng: ''

Tengwang Ge Xu ''Tengwang Ge Xu'' (, ''Preface to the Prince Teng's Pavilion''), full name ''Preface to a Farewell Feast Atop the Prince Teng's Pavilion in Autumn'' () or ''Preface to Poems on the Prince of Teng's Pavilion'' (), is a piece of literature by Wang ...

'' (Preface to a Poem on the Pavilion of Prince Teng), by Wang Bo * Yueyang Tower: ''Memorial to Yueyang Tower'', by Fan Zhongyan * Stork Tower: ''Ascending Guanque Tower'', by

Wang Zhihuan Wang Zhihuan (; 688–742), alternatively transliterated as Wang Tsu-huan, was a Chinese poet of the Kaiyuan era of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. He is best known for his ''jueju'' "Climbing Stork Tower" (). Poetry No collection of Wang's poems seems ...

Also, Yuewang Tower (Tower of Prince Yue, 越王楼), situated in Mianyang, Sichuan Province, is also considered to be one of the Four Great Towers. Yuewang Tower is linked with more than 100 pieces of literature, and the most famous one is: * Yuewang Tower: ''Ascending Tower'' by Li Bai The Three Great Towers of Jiangnan (江南三大樓) excludes both Penglai Pagoda and Stork Tower, which are in northern China, and only includes:"(一) 江南三大樓滕王阁黄鹤楼岳阳楼" * Yellow Crane Tower (Hubei, on the southern bank of the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...

) * Pavilion of Prince Teng (Jiangxi) * Yueyang Tower (Hunan)

References

Towers in China Traditional Chinese architecture {{PRChina-struct-stub